Latitude Festival allows swimming to celebrate 10 years

Dozens of people have taken advantage of the Latitude organisers relaxing the ban on swimming

Latitude festival organisers said they were "amazed" by the number of people who took a chance to swim in the site's lake for the first time.

The water at Henham Park in Suffolk had been reserved for punting and displays until this year.

Melvin Benn, festival director, said: "Festival-goers have been demanding to be able to swim.

"About a dozen people were swimming within 15 minutes of opening the gates on Thursday."

The lake at Henham Park bisects the festival site

Punting has been on offer on the lake since the festival began in 2006

Acrobatics in a giant inflatable sphere was part of the entertainment in 2009, but not swimming

The festival is offering guided swims into deeper water, while a cordoned-off area with lifeguards has space for about 100 swimmers at any one time.

'Warmer than expected'

Ben Kendall, a reporter for the Press Association, was one of those who took the plunge.

He said: "The water was warmer than expected and, once you were in, brilliantly refreshing.

"We did a few laps of the lake then laid back and cooled off while listening to music playing over the speakers.

"It is difficult to think of a better way to relax after a hard day of listening to music, getting sunburnt and over-eating."

Mr Benn said: "If the weather's anything like reasonable there's a demand for it, but it was amazing and we were really shocked by that - maybe it was the car journey."